Kan Dapaah Works His Magic

The Minister for Communications, Mr. Kan Dapaah, has used his political experience to calm tempers in Kyebi and Atiwa areas, where party supporters and residents were angry with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for allegedly neglecting them.

But for the Minister's experienced talk, which calmed them down, the residents had planned to show their disaffection for the party and the government, just before the People's Assemblies forum, which was held in Kwabeng and Kyebi in Atiwa and East Akyem Districts respectively.

Even after they had had their tempers assuaged by Hon Dapaah, some participants went ahead to remind the President, Mr. J. A. Kufuor, to fulfill his promises to them, or else they would not be happy at all.

The Chronicle gathered that most of the residents were angry over what they described as a great disappoint to them by the NPP government, and they had planned to cause a stir at the People's Assembly forum. But Kan Dapaah's sweet political talk, backed with facts and figures on projects and programmes executed by the government, made several of them recoil in their shells, saying his presentation had answered most of their questions.

They held, " If the NPP government describes Kyebi as its political Mecca, then it should fulfill its promises made to us to make us believe that really, our area is the political Mecca of the government."

Kan Dapaah rebutted their argument by demonstrating that about 80 per cent of almost all the promises the NPP had made during the campaign, had been fulfilled and he was therefore surprised when serial callers complained that the government had not done anything.

"We did not inherit a cocoa farm from the NDC; but rather a desert. So we have to plant the cocoa and nurture it to grow, before harvesting the benefits of it and that is what we have done; and soon, all shall see the good results of it," he explained.

The Minster observed that the telephone system was introduced in Ghana in 1890 and up to 2001, only 220,000 fixed lines were in the country.

He added that currently, three million people have got telephone systems in their homes, intimating that he hoped the number would be more by the end of 2006.

He expressed worry over petty squabbles and fights among residents, as a result of party politics, disclosing that even parliamentarians, who were the true politicians, do not fight after heated debates on the floor of parliament, but "meet at the canteen to share jokes, experiences and wine and dine; so all should learn to tolerate one another".

In a related development, the Asiakwahene, Osabarimah Agyemang III, has made it clear that Okyeman will not allow the government to extract bauxite in the area and transport the raw material elsewhere, where a refinery will be sited to create jobs, leaving citizens of Abuakwa jobless. He appealed to the government to assist the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, to establish the Okyeman University, which the latter is seriously trying to do.